1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a tool for opening a locked vehicle door and to the method of making the tool.
2. Description of the Prior Art
On occasion, a person may be locked out of their vehicle. This can occur for reasons such as the keys being left inside the vehicle, a key breaking off in the lock, or a malfunction in an electronic door locking mechanism. When this happens it is necessary to have the door unlocked by other means. Usually this requires calling for assistance and waiting for a response. When assistance does arrive two important factors to consider are the time it takes to unlock the vehicle and the potential damage to the car. What is needed is a tool that is quick and easy to use and does as little damage to a vehicle as possible.
Tools for opening locked vehicle doors are well known and have been in use for a long time. They run the range from a simple bent coat hanger to highly specialized tools such as those formed for a specific vehicle type and model year. While a dealer may have access to a set of keys for a particular type of vehicle, it is not always practical to call a dealer at every occasion when a vehicle door is locked. More often, an automotive repair service, locksmith, or law enforcement officer responds to such situations and uses tools designed for insertion into the door of the vehicle and interface with the internal locking mechanism to unlock the door.
Typically the individuals using such tools have some knowledge of the locking mechanism of a vehicle and some training in using specialized tools in unlocking vehicle doors. As such, it is necessary to have a simple and effective unlocking tool that allows the user to unlock a door in a short time thus allowing the user to proceed to assist others. Such tools vary widely in style and dimensions. One such tool is basically a wire type rod that is shaped to effectively interact with a door""s locking mechanisms. This is a popular style, but has disadvantages.
A rod designed for use to open a locked door must be strong enough to engage a locking mechanism and transport enough force to unlock the door. Depending upon the type of locking mechanism, the force may be exerted left, right, up, or down on the rod. This usually requires the rod to be of a material, such as steel, that can withstand such forces and to be of a sufficient thickness so as not to permanently deform in use. This poses a significant problem that is best illustrated by describing the process of using the rod.
To begin, the rod is inserted between the door and window. This area usually has a weather seal that is mounted on the inside of the door and engages the window. As a result, the rod is forced against the window. Due to the increased quality in weather stripping and outside surface of the glass window, what little area that may have existed in older model cars between the glass and weather strip has decreased significantly.
Next, the user must move the rod to locate the exact point at which the rod must come into contact with the locking mechanism for opening the door. However, the force needed to move the rod to its required position due to the seal requires a rod with a diameter large enough to withstand the force without deforming. Also, this movement increases the forces that are already placed on the door and window. This can cause scratches on the glass, damage to the seal, and may cause the window to shatter.
Finally, once the user has situated the rod, the user must exert force on the rod to unlock the door. The direction of the force depends upon the type of vehicle locking mechanism. If the rod is not in the right location, due for example to the forces associated with the seal on the rod making the rod less responsive for the user, then the use of force may damage the locking mechanism.
The rod is generally composed of a substance that is flexible and can transmit force without substantial deformation of its general shape. This is most often a variety of spring steel. Such a rod has a substantially circular cross section.
When inserted between a vehicle door and window, a rod with a substantially circular cross section must occupy a space between the seal and window approximately equal to the rod""s diameter from its point of contact on the door to its point of contact on the window. Usually there is a weather stripping or seal that fits between the door and the window. As the diameter of the rod increases, it becomes immediately apparent that at some point the diameter can become so large that it may not fit between the door and window or may exert an unacceptable amount of pressure on the door and window due to the seal. This pressure may damage the door, seal, and window and may also serve to inhibit the movement of the rod due to the friction between the rod, door, seal, and window. Such inhibited movement can make detection of the proper positioning of the rod within the door difficult and prone to erroneous placement.
One device has been used to overcome some, but not all, of these disadvantages. The device has a small portion of the rod flattened, not ground or sanded, on opposing sides so that this small portion of the rod can be inserted between the weather stripping and window on the inside of the vehicle. The remaining portion of the rod is round, which creates the same problems for interacting with the outside window and outside weather stripping as described above. Furthermore, this device is not made of steel and is not heat treated to provide the requisite resilience.
While this tool does address the force between the weather stripping and inside window, it does nothing to reduce the force on the outside weather stripping and outside window surface. Also, this tool does not address the strength of the tool for manipulating the locking mechanism or the knurled potion to facilitate engaging the mechanism.
What is needed is a tool that is thin enough to be easily inserted between the weather strip and the window, readily maneuverable within the door, and yet strong enough to transfer enough force to open the door locking mechanism. The present invention accomplishes these goals.
The invention is directed to a tool for use in unlocking a vehicle door. The tool is comprised of a rod bent into a shape that is useful for engaging a locking mechanism to unlock a vehicle door. Initially, the cross-sectional shape of the rod can vary, however for the purposes of this invention the cross-sectional shape is substantially of the form of a circle or ellipse. Two opposing surfaces of the rod are flat and the flat surfaces are in the same plane as the bends in the rod.
The opposing flat sides can extend substantially the length of the rod or the entire length of the rod. Substantially the length of the rod, or substantially the length of the vehicle unlocking apparatus, means that the flat surfaces need only be along the length of the portion of the rod, or apparatus, that comes into contact with the door seal and window. The rest of the length of the rod, or apparatus, could be of a different shape to accommodate, for example, a variety of handles. The flat surfaces could extend the full length of the rod in which case the handle of the rod, or apparatus, also includes the flat surfaces.
The portion of the rod that engages the locking mechanism can include a gnarled surface. A gnarled surface includes any type of roughened surface or any surface texture that is not smooth.
The rod is made of a material such as spring steel that can be manipulated and still transmits enough force to open a locking mechanism. Any material that is resilient, can substantially retain its shape, is flexible, and can transmit enough force to open a locking mechanism can be used.
The tool for opening a locked vehicle can be made by first selecting a rod of a generally circular cross section such that it can be bent into a shape that can interface with a specific locking mechanism. The rod has a first and second opposing end and the rod is ground down on two opposing sides. When the rod initially has a substantially circular cross-section the ground rod has two opposing flat sides and two opposing semi-circular sides. A rod of about 0.156 inches diameter where two opposing sides have been ground down to about 0.010 inches each is representative of a more efficient rod for use as a vehicle unlocking apparatus. However, a range of 0.140 to 0.190 inches provides adequate strength. Next, the rod is bent into a shape that will allow the user to manipulate a specific locking mechanism. After bending, if the rod is composed of a sufficiently resilient material such that it can be used without further hardening, then the rod can be utilized at this stage. However, if the rod were composed of a material that can be hardened to a desired resiliency, then the rod would be heat-treated to obtain the desired hardness. Where the rod has a gnarled portion, the gnarl can be present before the rod is ground or the gnarl can be added before the tool is through production. Finally, the rod can be coated with a material such as nickel or zinc.
The rod is comprised of bends and a flat surface on only one side of the rod. The flat surface is in the same plane as the bends.